This invention relates to a gun sighting device and more particularly to a portable device to sight a revolver or rifle which can be used with a conventional table or bench, a stump or my new portable bench.
Whenever hunters, marksmen or users of firearms use a gun, the sights need to be aligned relative to the weapon to assure the accuracy of the weapon. Preferably the sights are adjusted independent of the shooter. Later detected inaccuracies can then be directed to correcting deficiencies in the shooter's form or technique or the weapon can be compensated for the shooter in a known manner and not by mere guess.
Many devices have been proposed to hold a gun aimed at a fixed target position while aligning the sights. Some of the least complex comprise sand bags or other passive support structures. Another more complex structure can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,358,504 to Freebairn, which illustrates a sighting device that uses a ground tripod to support the sighting device. This device has a number of complicated clamps and adjustments to hold the rifle in position relative to the tripod and to align the rifle with a target. A pneumatic or hydraulic shock absorber is used to absorb the shock when the gun is fired.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,608 to Schmidt et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,385 to Culver illustrate smaller, more compact, gun sighting devices which can be fixedly mounted to a bench. With these devices, the bench itself must be turned to roughly align the gun barrel with the target before any final adjustments can be made. In Culver, the shock absorber is a resilient cushion. In Schmidt, the shock absorber is a spring. U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,563 describes an aligning device which fixedly mounts to a bench, but which device may pivot relative to the fixed base. This device includes springs fixed between the base and the gun receiving member to absorb shock when the gun is fired.